Thursday, August 15, 2013

I was recently asked to explain 1st, 2nd and 3rd person narrative
viewpoints.A quick example: 1st person is what I'm writing in now (notice that I write like I am the person doing all the action); in 3rd person the author writes like she is outside the character and reporting what she knows to the reader (notice the use of "she" rather than "I"); you'd really like 2nd person but you might find it challenging because it's not how you normally write (notice that the narrator refers directly to you, the reader).All this explaining has made me want to post stuff in 2nd person.So I will.

You spent much of your afternoon today reminiscing about your youth, particularly 1973. That was the summer you donned your cordovan hip boots and red leather mask and took to the streets of Los Angeles as Afrodite, the first black super heroine.

Sometimes one of those I Heart the 70s retrospectives replays a news clip, usually the one where you stopped the kidnapper with a jump rope lasso. You're always thankful they didn't have hi-def cameras back then. There's no easy way to look fresh after a half-mile foot chase through back yard suburbia. (Again with the sweating.)

You almost got to meet president Nixon, but the secret service wanted your full name before they would let you near the man. Sometimes you think turning down that invitation was one of your smarter decisions.

You threw out the leather mask after the breakout. You managed to pass off the rash that made you look like the Lone Ranger as a bad reaction to acne cream. You still have the boots, though, and once a year you dig them out from the back of the cabinet in the laundry room and spend a few minutes polishing them until they shine like summer again.